Soldiers seen through marijuana being incinerated at a military base in Ciudad Juarez. Violence in Mexico has worsened dramatically since President Felipé Calderón launched his drug war in 2006. (Photo by Reuters)

Mexico’s "business class" refugees

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Violence is pushing Mexican elites to buy their way to safety using a special class of U.S. visas available only to the rich.

By Todd Bensman — GlobalPost

Published: October 1, 2009 09:50 ET
Updated: October 18, 2009 17:14 ET

SAN ANTONIO — Hard work and acumen earned Pierre Oliver Gama Valdes fabulous affluence at 34.

As a Mexican living in his country’s sprawling capital, however, neither his wit nor wealth could protect his family from criminal gangs’ extortionist threats. On the contrary, success made Gama a marked man, and left him in constant fear for his wife and two children.

In the U.S., however, Gama’s money grants him privileges — explicit ones, sanctioned by the federal government. A $100,000 investment and a bit of paper work bought his family a ticket out of the lawlessness spawned by Mexico’s civil drug war, enabling them to settle as legal residents in San Antonio, Texas. And it put them on a clear path to citizenship, with almost no questions asked.

Gama, an energetic, athletically built man with intense brown eyes, is part of a new immigration phenomenon: Tens of thousands of Mexico’s most affluent and entrepreneurial citizens are fleeing to California, Texas and other states. They are securing obscure U.S. business visas that allow them to invest in American enterprises. They are the elite upon which Mexico had been developing its economy, until President Felipe Calderon launched his crackdown on the country’s vicious drug gangs.

Now, they form an exodus that some Latino leaders are comparing to the post-Castro departure of Cuba’s ownership class after the 1959 revolution. Battle-scarred families are arriving on midnight flights after nightmares with kidnappers — heinous ordeals that leave them lacking feet, ears and fingers...

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Editor's note: This story was updated to correct the spelling of Felipe Calderon.

Comments:

4 Comments.

Posted by rogpeck2002 on October 1, 2009 19:04 ET

The fix to this problem is to secure the border. The President of Mexico condemned the US for constructing new fences along the border and man them with increase security. Its the only way to stop drug and gun trade in and out of Mexico. Seal the borders, inspect every car and truck coming into America and enforce the immigration laws. Only then, will things get back to normal on the border.

Posted by warrengreer on October 8, 2009 14:36 ET

Rogpeck is wrong. A 1,500 mile wall didn't work for the Chinese and it wouldn't work for us! De-criminalization, profit removal
and user help are the three legs of the stool that will lift us out of the drug wars, and cause the defeat of the syndicates in
Mexico which threaten that government and our economy. The money
saved will come from less criminal activity, less cost of health care, and less border and police expense.

Posted by jlburke on October 18, 2009 13:02 ET

@rogpeck: all the weapons used by drug criminals in Mexico come from the US, if you want to improve the conditions along the border, then the US has to revise its absurdly lax weapons laws so the cartels cannot go around massacring people with US-bought weapons.
By the way, your idea of setting up a wall along the border is not only moronic, and ridiculous, but it's financially inviable, genius.
@global post: the President of Mexico is called Felipe Calderón, not Calderone.

Posted by jbuberel on October 18, 2009 19:48 ET

@warrengreer - Right on! As Portugal has now so clearly demonstrated, decriminalization does not increase the drug use rate, and is the only sane/viable/cost-effective solution to the problems described in this article: Drug Prohibition Induced Violence.

@jlburke: What reason would you have to believe that any attempt to stop the flow of guns from the US to Mexico would be any more successful than attempting to stop the flow of immigrants from Mexico to the US? Seems unlikely, in my opinion. Take the profit/violence motive out of the trade via decriminalization - not only the most humane solution, but also the most cost effective.

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